Mumbai's preparedness helped it fight COVID after unlock

Nine months of the pandemic saw many highs and lows of COVID through 2020 The virus which arrived in March and showed its true might after restrictions were lifted in June now has a limited reach though the threat isnt over yet While the number of cases and the Test Positivity Rate TPR are the lowest since May authorities are gearing up to face the new strain of the virus and vaccine implementationArriving passengers get tested at Mumbai Central on Wednesday PicBipin KokateThere are 8178 active COVID19 cases in the city Average daily deaths have decreased from 52 to less than 10 the number of tests has tripled and the TPR is below 4 per cent from 28 per cent in JuneCases deaths have come down but the pandemic remains Social distancing wearing a mask and frequent handwashing are the keys to prevent transmission said Suresh Kakani additional municipal commissioner He added that from the passengers arriving from UK who tested positive half have recovered which is a good signEarly in the pandemic cases were lower due to either a strict lockdown or low testing Till April end only 7625 cases had been reported with 201 lakh tests Cases started increasing with 33252 new ones in MayStill the city opened up in June and until August average monthly cases were 34000 The curve sharpened after Ganpati festival with there being 34136 active cases on September 18 High number of cases continued to be reported in October and wiser after Ganpati festival the BMC tightened measures postDiwaliThere was testing at all major railway stations and general doctors were kept in the loop for symptomatic cases said a BMC officer However the cases did not increase again This month the daily average has been 628 as opposed to Mays daily average of over 1000The highest number of deaths were reported in June 3310 but many were from May and April The average monthly deaths were 1444 till September and rose to 1606 in October Cases started declining in the second week of October but it took two weeks for that to reflect it in the mortalities said a doctor from the death audit committee This month average daily deaths are less than 10 Of the 11088 city deaths 9566 were of those aged 50 years and aboveTests and positivity rateInitially with Kasturba hospital being the only centre for testing it witnessed long queues Amid a shortage of RTPCR kits the corporation restricted testing The situation changed completely after August with antigen tests but this time people were avoiding them When the pandemic was at its peak there was an average of 7000 tests per day Antigen tests increased it with 11797 daily tests in September and 14907 in DecemberThe TPR positives per 100 tests was 20 per cent till Mayend when 40877 cases were detected from 201 lakh tests since March This month it is 4 per cent as 18902 cases have been detected from conducting 417 lakh tests both RTPCR and antigen14907Average number of daily tests in DecemberMUMBAIS MONTHLY COVID REPORTMonth Cases DeathsTill April end 7625 295May 33252 1024June 37831 3310July 36638 1766August 31601 1295September 60547 979October 50914 1606November 25776 544Till December 28 18092 275Reconciliation of deaths in earlier monthsThe number of cases may slightly vary due to reconciliation of data In December more than 10000 cases were removed from total cases due to duplicates or for being out of Mumbai